MOSCOW, May 24 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova) – A prosecutor has asked the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow to sentence a participant of an unauthorized March 26 rally in Moscow, Alexander Shpakov, charged with violence against representative of authority, to two years in a penal colony, RAPSI learnt in the court on Wednesday.

Shpakov has admitted guilt in full and the case is being reviewed under special procedure without reviewing the evidence.

According to investigators, Shpakov punched a police officer in the face trying to open a door of a bus containing people arrested during the unauthorized rally on March 26.

Earlier, the court has sentenced one of the participants, Yury Kuliy, to eight months in a penal colony.

According to the numbers reported by the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry for Moscow, about 500 people were arrested on March 26 during the unauthorized rally. Overall number of people present in the area at the time was estimated at as high as 8,000 people. One of the police officers received injuries, a criminal case was launched over this incident.

According to the Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, arrested during the rally, Moscow authorities refused to greenlight the rally in the city’s center and proposed alternative areas only a day before it was to take place. Navalny said that in this case Russian legislation allows organizers to hold an event at the area, which was listed first.